Growing Our Wings
by Lady Quickshift
Summary: The Aerialbots never had a real childhood, but what if a mishap in the labs changed that? Rated T just to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

GROWING OUR WINGS

Summary: The Aerialbots never really had a childhood, what if a misshapen in the labs changed that?

Disclaimer: I own nothing here except my OC's please ask first if you want to use any part of them.

Talking: "English or other Earth language,"

"_**Cybertronian,**_"

'_thoughts_'

:Comm. link:

(Bond talk)

*(_Sparkling talk_)*

* * *

Chapter 1:

The day had started like any other at the Autobot base, formerly known as the _Ark_, the 'Bots had just come back from a battle with the Decepticons , Ratchet was in the Medbay dealing with the injured—thankfully no one was seriously injured—with Perceptor assisting while Wheeljack was in his lab working on… whatever Wheeljack was working on during the battle.

Meanwhile, a group of mechs were on their way to the labs, one being dragged unwillingly by the others, who were just as nervous as he was.

"I don't see why we have to go to Wheeljack's…"

"need I remind you what happened in the Rec. Room?"

"But what if he blows something up while we're in there?"

"Hey you were the one that broke it you get to come with and ask for his help, or would you rather we go get Ratchet?"

They walked silently, the only sound in the corridor were those of their peds; the thuds of their footfalls and the screeching of the ones being dragged. One of them looked back at him and saw him scowling.

"Ah. C'mon Slingshot, don't be such a sparkling,"

Slingshot hissed back "I am _not _a sparkling, We never got to be sparklings because they onlined us in these adult frames but they still treat us like little kids unless they need us to fight,"

The others pondered this a moment "you know, he's right Silverbolt."

Silverbolt sighed "I know…" he kept walking, helm bowed solemly.

Eventually, they made it to the heavy reinforced steel doors of the lab. Airraid slowly reached for the keypad then backed away "So, who wants to go first?"

"Nose goes!" Fireflight touched his olfactory sensor.

"What?"

"It's something Spike taught us, last one to touch their nose has to do it,"

"Oh" Skydive and Airraid touched theirs as well.

Silverbolt huffed air out his vents "I'll go first," he entered the code into the key pad and stood back for the door to open as the others jumped aside as if something was going to jump out and eat them. Seeing as nothing bad happened—yet—they all entered the room cautiously.

The Inventor inside didn't hear them come in, he was too absorbed in his work. Wheeljack reached for a piece he needed for his project and jumped, just now realizing he wasn't alone. "Oh, hey guys, how's it goin'?"

Slingshot tried to remain out of sight, but Skydive caught him by the arm and pushed his brother forward. "Go on tell'im,"

"Fine, The energon dispenser is on the fritz and we were wondering if…"

"What he means is," Silverbolt cut him off "Some of us were messing around in the Rec. Room and the dispenser got broke, and we were wondering if you could help us fix it, since Ratchet is busy with…"

"Being Ratchet?"

"Um, Yeah pretty much,"

The Green and white mechs optics shone with mirth and crinkled at the corners to show he was smiling behind his blast mask. "Sure I'll help ya, just let me finish up with this and I'll get right on it." He turned back to his machine and started putting on the finishing touches.

"What are you working on?"

"Huh? Oh this? This is something I've been working on for a while. You know how we crashed here on Earth a few million years ago? Well, you mechs weren't here for that but my point is, in reality we should be all ancient rusted out hunks of scrap, but the reason we are still here today is because we were in stasis for so long, We mentioned this to the humans and wondered 'What if the 'Cons aged while in stasis and we didn't? Wouldn't they be easier to fight?' So I got to thinking, if there was a way to age them to that point artificially we actually could defeat them more easily. I brought this up with Prime and he agreed as long as no one got hurt,"

"So, does it work?" No one noticed Fireflight had gotten closer to the work bench for a better look.

"Well, I haven't been able to test it on anything alive, Sparkplug suggested trying to make something called 'wine', it's a human high grade made from fermented fruit juices, so I plan to test it on that. He says he can take it to a "wine tasting" party in town where experts try different blends of the stuff to see if it—Oh slag." He accidently turned the devise on. As he desperately tried to shut it off, the gestalt saw that their brother was point blank of the beam that was powering up.

"_**FIREFLIGHT, NO!**_" they all jumped forward to put him out of the way but…

_**ZZ-Zap!**_ _**Ka-BOOM!**_ The machine fired a bright flash of light, blinding the occupants in the room, and exploded.

As the dust cleared, Wheeljack reset his optics so he could he again. "Fireflight? Silverbolt?"

No answer "Skydive? Airraid? Slingshot? Guys, where are you?" again no answer, until he heard little noises; Chirps, clicks and what sounded like… crying? They sounded nearby "Guys? Is that you?" The fog was completely gone, revealing the source of the noise. Wheeljack's optics widened then he gasped, covering his lower face. "Oh shi—I mean, _**Shh Shh, it's okay**_," he slowly moved forward and held one of them close. "_**Everything's goin' to be okay**_," He opened a comm. link to Optimus Prime.

:Wheeljack to Optimus Prime.:

:Optimus Prime here, go ahead Wheeljack,:

:You think you an' a few other officers can come to the lab? There's something you mechs might want to see.:

The Prime tried to keep his voice even :Does this have to do with the explosion from earlier?:

Ratchet cut in through the sibling Bond (How many pieces, Wheeljack?)

Wheeljack patched his brother into the conversation :Jeez, have some faith in me guys. Anyway, yes it does, but it also involves the Aerialbots.:

:Aerialbots? What happened?:

:…You're just going to have to come see for yourself. Wheeljack out.:

He terminated the connection and grabbed a crate and lined it with some soft packing material he found. '_I am so dead. I am so dead. I am so…'_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Optimus Prime and the other Autobot officers able to come; Prowl: Second in command and head Tactitian, Ratchet: Chief Medical Officer, Jazz:Third in command and head of Special Ops and Ironhide: Weapons Specialist.

Red Alert decided he would rather observe from the security hub. This information was relayed by Inferno due to the fact that the Security Director was too busy ranting about what he saw in the labs.

Perceptor and Skyfire were also waiting to see what had happened in the labs and were worried about Wheeljack, who was the only other officer not present.

The blast door had locked them out so Ratchet had to use his medic's override code on the lock to let them in. When they got inside they saw that the place looked like a mess—surprise, surprise—and Wheeljack crouched over a crate, talking Cybertronian in a low voice to something inside.

"Wheeljack where are the…?"

The scientist held a digit to his face to silence them and pointed to the box.

"What the…"

_Squeeak!_ They all jumped, that noise sounded familiar, but no one could place how. Slowly, Jazz crept up to it and peered inside. The visored mech covered his face plates with his servos to muffle a barely suppressed squeal of glee. "_**Prowler, Prowler c'm'ere,**_" he quietly called his Bondmate over.

"_**My designation is Prowl, Jazz. What is it?**_"

Jazz just waved him over again. Rolling his optics, the Praxian crept over to see for himself, and promptly crashed. The saboteur caught him and lowered him to the ground. "_**Wheeljack, where did you…**_" His visor brightened as Wheeljack whispered in his audio. Jazz looked at him, then the box and back again "_**Seriously?**_"

Wheeljack gave him a look that said "Why would I joke about something like this?"

The black and white mech nodded and got out of Ratchet's way so he could fix Prowl and directed his attention to the source of the crash. Ratchet's jaw dropped.

"_**uh, Ratch?**_" the red and white mech turned on his brother, intent on bodily harm, and grabbed him by the chestplates. The Engineer held up his servo in surrender, hoping to placate his wrath.

While they were arguing back and forth in Cybertronian, the others ventured forth to see what the fuss was about. There was a collective gasp as their jaws dropped.

Inside the crate, nestled amongst packing material, were five little red and white sparklings. Flier sparklings that looked very familiar.

"_**Are… are these…?**_"

"_**The Aerialbots? Yeah,**_"

Prime opened and closed his mouth, trying to find words to say, had it not been for his mask he would have looked like a fish. "How did this happen?" he switched to English in case they heard them speaking so what they were saying wouldn't scare them.

"I was working on an invention…"

"Ah, hell, here we go again,"

"Ironhide! Go on Wheeljack,"

"…to make it so the Decepticons would be the way they'd be if they aged naturally, the ones that were in stasis would have been millions of years older and the newer ones, like the Stunticons, would have been sparklings,"

"If what Wheeljack's saying is true they have been reverted to the age they would be if they weren't onlined in adult frames." Ratchet stopped trying to beat up the aforementioned mech and was examining the mini flyers. "They seem healthy enough, they appear to be not quite a vorn old, which proves Wheeljacks theory." He brushed his servos off and stood "Well, 'Jack, you were right it works, now how do you plan on turning them back?"

Wheeljack's helm fins turned pinkish-purple. "Um, well you see…"

"YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO CHANGE THEM BACK?"

"Ratchet, calm down, you'll scare the little ones and killing Wheeljack won't solve anything either,"

Ratchet removed his servos from the inventor's throat. "Thanks Prime, as I was saying, while there _is _a way to reverse the effect I hadn't been able to install the needed components for it yet when they came in asking for help fixing the energon dispenser in the rec. room,"

"What happened to the dispenser in the rec. room?" Prowl had just came to and was already asking questions.

"Don't worry about it, it's been taken care of, the nozzle was just knocked loose."

"Oh, good one less thing to worry about. Unfortunately, some of the components here have been fried when the thing blew. So, I'm going to have to replace them along with the finishing touches, it's a setback but shouldn't take that long," he looked up from checking over what still needed to be done and over to the box. "What I'm worried about is what we're gonna do with these guys in the meantime,"

Skyfire leaned over the edge of the box. "Hey, I think they're waking up,"

*Sparkling POV*

Systems onlined slowly, the little sparkling wasn't sure where it was, all it knew was it was warm. He unshuttered his optics and looked down at himself. He saw little servos and tiny digits, he wiggled them and played with his peds. He saw another pair of peds beside him. '_I wonder what these are?_' he grabbed one and pulled on it.

_Squeak! _ The sparkling that the peds belonged to woke and looked around. '_What was that?' _The two sparklings saw each other and the others started waking up too.

*(_What is this place? Who are you guys?_)* The first one asked.

*(_Who are you?_)*

*(_Oh, Right, sorry. I think my name's… Silverbolt?_)* He wasn't sure how he knew, but a feeling in his spark told him so, just as it told him these other bots were his… what?

The second sparkling pulled his peds close to him. *(_Skydive_)*

*(_and I'm Airraid_)*

*(_Fireflight, ooh_ _**shiny!**_)* The curious sparkling grabbed the "shiny" that he found in the corner of the box and started fiddling with it.

*(_I'm Slingshot_)*

*(_it's weird, I feel like I know you guys, but I don't know how?_)* They all thought about it, Silverbolt was right, they all seemed familiar to each other.

*(_Well, we did just come online, and we all kinda look the same… hey, guys I think we're __**brothers**_)* That seemed about right and they all agreed.

*(_SWEET! Brothers! GROUP HUG!_)* Airraid glomped Skydive.

_Chirp_! *(_Hey!)* _The two sparklings started to wrestle, then the others joined in, until something big came down and separated them.

*(_whoa, what is that?_)* Slingshot ruffled his armor and hissed at it, it didn't move.

*(_looks like a servo. A really big servo._)* Silverbolt sniffed it.

*(_Let's get it!)*_Airraid latched onto it and held on as he was lifted up. *(_Whoa!_)*

*(_Hang on!_)* Skydive grabbed on too as they were lifted out of the box.

*regular POV*

"I think they are waking up," sure enough they were. They all watched as one onlined its optics and started playing with its digits and peds. When it pulled on another's peds it let out a squeak which woke the rest of them up. Seeing there were others around, they started chirping to each other and then started play fighting.

"_**Hey, hey, none of that now,**_" Skyfire reached in to break up the fight. They all looked at his servo like they didn't know what it was. One of them—he recognized it as Slingshot—fluffed up and hissed at him. While reflex told him to pull back, instinct told him not to, so he remained as he was. Another one—Silverbolt—cautiously came up and sniffed him before Airraid latched on. "_**Hey,**_" he slowly lifted his servo out as Skydive grabbed on too. Very carefully, he lifted them out of the crate and placed his other servo under them so they wouldn't fall. They both looked at him and Skydive chirped and warbled to the others below.

*(_Hey, Silverbolt you were right it was a really big servo. There's a really big bot out here.)*_

_*(I wanna see)*_ they all tried to climb out of the box, cheeping like baby birds in a nest.

"_**Skyfire, I don't think they like being split up like that,**_"

"_**Oh, right, sorry little ones,**_" he put them down alongside their brothers and withdrew his servos, careful to move slowly so he wouldn't startle them; They took notice of the other bots looking down at them and they all tried to stand up for a better look.

"_**Ah, they're just like turbopuppies at a pet store, '**__Pick meh! Pick meh!__**'" **_Jazz leaned closer "_**Aint ya guys the cutest?**_" The sparklings, not used to this kind of attention from strange bots, squealed and tried to burrow into the packing material. "_**Ah, c'mon, little buddies, ,**_" he leaned further into the box so his faceplates disappeared from view. "_**ah didn't mean ta scare ya…**_" _Clang! _"_**OW!**_" he fell back clutching his helm. "_**Wha' was that?**_"

Ratchet noticed a bolt fall on the ground and picked it up "_**I think one of them threw this at you, Question is where did they get it?**_"

"_**Probably in the box with them,**_" Skyfire looked down at them and spoke firmly but gently. "_**Alright, which one of you threw that?**_" the sparklings all hid deeper into their little "nest". Skyfire's voice softened "_**Why are you so frightened? I will not harm you. Shh, it's okay, come on out. No one's going to hurt you.**_" He reached for the closest one and stroked it with his digit. The sparkling, who turned out to be Fireflight, purred and leaned into the caress. The others saw this and came over and nuzzled his servo, asking for the same treatment. Skyfire happily obliged them until they curled up together and dozed off under his servo.

The others observed this and smiled. "_**Well, 'Jack, I think that answers your question,**_"

"_**Hm?**_" Skyfire pulled his attention away from the sparklings to see his fellow Autobots smiling at him. "_**Oh, you mean...**_"

"_**What's wrong, Skyfire? Don't you want to?**_"

"_**Well, yes… sort of… I don't know. I mean, all five of them? Surely there's someone more qualified for this, Isn't there?"**_

Optimus politely interrupted "_**Skyfire, you're not alone in this, it's not like we're going to leave all the responsibility on you, We will all be glad to help if you need it, they just need someone to be their guardian being as they don't have actual creators to look after them.**_"

Skyfire fidgeted "_**What if I mess up? What if I'm incapable of…**_"

Again the Prime cut him off. "_**Skyfire, From what we just witnessed, you seem perfectly capable of handling them, they already seem to trust you, and you're a flier,**_"

"_**And no one knows fliers better than another flier,**_" Ratchet put in. "_**Besides, you are a flier with similar coloring to theirs, I wouldn't find it surprising if they imprint on you as their caretaker as it is,**_"

"_**Ratchet's right, but I'll leave the decision up to you. Skyfire will you accept the responsibility as guardian?"**_

Realizing he had spoken the first part of the "guardian oath" he took one long look at the sparklings, raised himself on one knee with a servo on the edge of the crate, took a deep intake and replied "_**Optimus Prime, I, Skyfire, accept the role as guardian to these sparklings. I will do everything within my power to make sure they are happy, healthy, and well cared for until they are no longer in need of me.**_"

"_**Thank you Skyfire, and like I said, you're not alone here. If you need any help don't be afraid to ask,**_"

"_**Thank you,**_" The Shuttleformer stooped to pick up the crate carefully so he wouldn't jostle them. "_**You need help with anything Wheeljack?**_"

"_**Don't worry about it, I'll manage."**_ The engineer waved him off, helm fins flashing blue.

"_**Well, in that case I'll just get these little bitlets out of your way. C'mon guys,**_"

Ratchet followed him out. "_**Bring them by the medbay, I want to give them a thorough checkup before you do anything else,"**_

Sudden realization dawned on him "_**I don't have anything to take care of sparklings though,**_"

Ratchet flashed one of his rare smiles at him "_**Another reason to take them to the medbay; I can get some of the things you need there, the rest we might be able to piece together from what we have in storage.**_"

"_**Thank you, Ratchet.**_"

* * *

**A.N.: And there you have it! What sort of mischief will they get into as sparklings? Will there be sparkling cuteness? Slag Yes! But you're going to have to wait and see ; ) **

**Any flames will be converted into energon to be made into energon goodies for the nice people that review.**


	2. Chapter 2

Growing Our Wings

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC's, please ask before using any part of them.

Rated: T, just to be safe, there are slash references and there might be some adult language from the older bots later.

Warnings: check your dental plans, folks, I think I'm actually get cavities writing this thing there's so much "Sparkling sweetness" ahead. ; )

* * *

_In the Medbay _

"_**Alright just set them on the berth here while I get everything ready,**_"

Skyfire set the box on the berth in question and carefully started to take to set them out on it.

He lifted Silverbolt out first, who started to wake up from the sudden change. "_**Shh, it's okay Silver, go back into recharge,**_" he stroked the spot between the winglets with his digit until the sparkling resumed recharge. Airraid and Skydive had snuggled together so he lifted them out at the same time; neither of them stirred. Fireflight was next, Skyfire noticed that his peds and digits were twitching while he recharged so he was extra careful placing him out with the others.

"… _**And last but not least is Slingshot… Hey, where did he go?**_" when he turned back for the smallest sparkling and found none he started to panic. '_Where could he have gone?_' Luckily, before he actually panicked, he heard a rustling inside the crate and noticed a flash of red and white moving deeper into the "nest". Skyfire let out a sigh of relief "_**Slingshot? What are you doing?**_" he reached in and pulled the little flier out of the box.

*Slingshot's POV*

He was woken up again by his brothers moving around in their little space only to find himself alone. The little sparkling found he didn't like being alone.

'_Where is everybody? Where are my brothers?'_ he looked up and saw Fireflight being lifted out of the box. '_Oh no, they took everybody away. They're probably gonna get me next. GOTTA HIDE!'_ he tried to hide amongst the soft stuff in the box but he heard a big, deep voice overhead. "_**Slingshot? What are you doing?**_"

Then, the same big white servos from before bore down on him. *(AHH! Oh NO, HE'S GOT ME! HELP, HELP!)*

*Regular POV*

As soon as Skyfire pulled him out of the packing material, the tiny sparkling immediately started a fuss, kicking, squirming, screaming and crying.

"_**Oh, no don't cry**_" Instinctively, the Shuttleformer held the sparkling to his chestplates near his spark chamber, rocking him gently. "_**shh, everything's going to be ok, please don't cry…**_"

Although he didn't know why, Slingshot let himself calm down after a few minutes; the sound of… _something_ beating in the big mech's chest, the warmth of it, all made him feel better, made him feel safe.

Skyfire felt the sparkling lean his helm against him and relax in his servos and he smiled. "_**There, there. It's alright,**_" he heard chirping noises and looked down to see the other Aerialbots looking up with him with big blue sparkling optics, they were worried about their little brother. Slingshot saw them too and reached for them, squirming around again. Skyfire sat down on the next to them and set him amongst the little "puppy pile" they had formed, which he eagerly snuggled into and chirped excitedly like he thought he was never going to see them again._** "See? It's okay, nothing to fuss about,**_"

"_**Not yet anyway,"**_ Ratchet came over pushing a wheeled table covered with trays of instruments and handheld scanners.

"_**Which one do you want to check first?**_"

"_**Let's go by age, Silverbolt is the oldest so let's get him done first,**_"

Skyfire nodded and carefully extracted the chosen flier sparkling from the heap and held him in his lap.

Silverbolt tilted his helm back to look up at the bot holding him, who smiled down at him reassuringly. This mech seemed familiar to him too, but where…?

Ratchet leaned forward to look the sparkling in the optics "_**Hello, little one. I'm Ratchet. I'm just going to give you and your brothers a quick check-up. You probably won't like me very much by the time this is over, but if you be a good little mechling until I am done you can have an energon goodie, how's that?" **_

Ratchet ran him through every scan and test he thought necessary and checked his systems and vital signs for anything awry. "_**Well, he seems to be a very healthy sparkling… now just to make sure he stays that way,"**_ The medic met the temporary-Guardian's optics. "_**You might want to hold him for this part.**_"

Skyfire nodded, he knew what was coming next, and held Silverbolt close to his spark so that he was looking away from the medic with one of his little arm servos held between the larger flier's digits.

Ratchet went back to the little table and came forward again and wiped the tiny arm-servo with a sanitary wipe, holding something behind his back. "_**Okay, Silverbolt, I know you're not going to like this, but it has to be done. I promise I'll make it quick, just hold really still, okay?**_" he pulled out the small syringe he kept hidden so he wouldn't scare the poor kid, and carefully stuck the needle into a fuel line and pushed the plunger all the way down.

Silverbolt felt something sting his arm and started to squirm and almost cried, but the big mech holding him held him tight and told him it was okay, that everything was going to be okay.

"_**Alright, that's it, We're done.**_" Ratchet traded the syringe for a roll of tape and sealed off the fuel line while Skyfire comforted the crying little one. He let him sit up so he could see what the medic was getting for him. "_**That wasn't so bad, was it?**_" Ratchet held out an energon goodie, which Silverbolt eyed with big blue optics. When the treat was placed in his servos the sparkling held it in front of him like a lost person trying to read a map, then sniffed it curiously and nipped a corner for a taste. '_Oh, this is good.'_

Skyfire set him down next to his brothers who gathered around him while he happily nibbled on his treat.

*(What happened? What did they do to you?)*

*(Whatcha got there?)*

Silverbolt stopped munching long enough to answer *(That other red and white mech did some stuff and then my arm servo hurt, but then he gave me this really yummy… thing.)*

"_**Okay Skydive, your turn," **_Ratchet picked up the darker colored sparkling and handed him to Skyfire and the process was repeated. When they stuck him with the needle… Primus can that kid _scream._

"_**Sorry, kid, but it had to be done."**_ He was handed him own treat and placed back with his brothers, who were scared by the screaming.

Then came Fireflight's turn, he seemed more interested in what the medic was doing than what was actually going on; always reaching out for the tools and other equipment to try to grab them for a closer look. When it came time for his jab, Skyfire distracted him by scratching his nasal ridge until Fireflight reached up with his free servo to try to bat his digit away until he yelped when he felt something in his arm servo. But in the end he got his treat and was back with his brothers.

Then came Airraid he just wouldn't sit still so Skyfire held him still the whole time until…

*(OW! SOMETHING BIT ME!)*

Soon four of the five sparklings were happily munching energon goodies like happy little squirrels.

"_**Ok, looks like that just leaves Slingshot,**_"

"_**Is he really the youngest of the group?" **_Skyfire carefully reached for the nervous little sparkling.

"_**Not really, Airraid and Fireflight are actually younger than him, but he's so much smaller than the rest he might as well be,**_"

Slingshot flinched away from the adults, afraid of what they were going to do to him.

"_**Easy Slingshot, it's alright, I will not harm you,**_" Skyfire gently cradled him in his servos and held him close. Slingshot glared at Ratchet with his servos crossed and a slight pout to his lip components.

"_**Ooh, Scary,"**_ Ratchet's sarcasm was obvious. "_**I can do that too, watch,**_" Ratchet mimicked the expression perfectly and, thus, began the stare down. What Slingshot didn't realize, though, was that Ratchet was using his built in scanners to check his systems and Skyfire doing the physical checks while he was distracted and forwarding his findings to the medic via comm. link.

Slingshot's optics followed Ratchet's movements from behind his visor as the older bot positioned himself in front of his little work station and put his servos behind his back. "_**Well, I think we're just about done here,**_"

Skyfire adjusted his hold on the sparkling as he had on the others so he didn't see this last part of the check-up. But he certainly felt it, and the screaming and crying resumed.

Skyfire comforted him as best he could, just as he had the others, but he didn't stop until his fuel line was taped up and he was placed back with his brothers along with his energon goodie.

Airraid was the only one that had any of his left—not counting the sticky mess on Fireflight's face—so Airraid just shoved the remains of his into his mouth as they all snuggled together for a group hug while Slingshot ate his.

"_**Alright, that's the last of them. Now let's see about getting you some sparkling care supplies,**_"

Ratchet gave Skyfire a cube of sparkling grade energon, some sparkling bottles to feed them with and the code for the dispenser in case they needed more and he wasn't around to get it. "_**…and here is a datapad on sparklings and sparkling care. It also includes information on Carrying, but you can just skip over that if you don't want to read it. I'm going to have a look through what we have in storage later to see if anything we had when the younger bots were sparklings is still here and usable. If you have any questions or need anything else feel free to ask.**_"

"_**Thank you Ratchet,**_" Skyfire looked at the sparklings and the crate he had been carrying them around in. "_**Is there a better way to carry them than in that crate? I know I can't hold all five of them in my servos easily, but it just seems like something someone that plans on leaving them in a park would do,**_"

Ratchet put a servo on his hip gyro with his other one resting on his chin as he thought about this. "_**Hmm, yeah you're definitely not the kind of bot that would leave sparklings in a park, but I see your point. You can always carry them in your cockpit if you wish, but as for recharge-time arrangements this will do for now—most bots tend to build nests for their young anyway and they seem to have made that theirs—but I'll see what else we can do.**_"

"_**Thank you Ratchet, I'm going to see if I can find a good spot for them in my quarters; it's not like they will be able to go to theirs like this,"**_

"_**Alright, see you later, and you might want to get them some fuel by the end of the day." **_

"_**Don't worry, I will," **_

"_**And make sure they stay warm, although I don't think you'll have too much trouble with that as they seem to be doing a pretty decent job of keeping each other warm,"**_

Skyfire left the medbay and made his way to the hanger that was in the base for the residual fliers; it had separate rooms each flyer could go to for privacy as well as a common room for social interaction. It was also close to the exit so they wouldn't feel so cooped up and could get out and into the air quickly.

On his way, he covered the lid with a cloth so they wouldn't catch a draft and because a couple of them kept trying to climb out, they couldn't stand up enough to reach the rim but he wasn't taking any chances.

He looked up at the sound of pedfalls to see Bluestreak and Sideswipe jogging up to him with Sunstreaker following close behind.

"_**Hey, Skyfire, is it true? Where are the Aerialbots? Are they with you? Are they okay? Did Wheeljack's invention hurt them?..." **_ Bluestreak rambled excitedly. Confused Skyfire looked at the other two for clarification.

"_**Jazz told us what happened,"**_

"_**Ah, Well Bluestreak to answer your question…" **_he slowly pulled back the corner of the cloth so they could peer inside to see the five tiny fliers crawling around in the packing material and chirping at each other.

Bluestreak just couldn't take it and screamed like a fan-boy. "_**OH MY PRIMUS, THE AERIEALBOTS ARE SPARKLINGS! THEY ARE SO ADORABLE!"**_

Upon hearing the scream the five sparkling flattened themselves on their backs like astronauts held down by G-forces during a launch with wide blue optics.

Sideswipe spoke up as well "_**Ah, they **__are __**cute… hey what are they doing now?"**_ they four watched as the sparklings burrowed into their little "nest" to get out of sight, Silverbolt pulling a corner of the foam sheeting to cover them.

"_**I think you just startled them," **_Skyfire motioned for them to be quiet and wait a moment. When nothing happened, he decided to try a trick his temporary caretakers tried on him when he was a sparkling and attempted to hide from them until his Creators came back.

First he made a *_Chirrup-mew* _sound and waited, sure enough, he heard a soft mewl came from inside the box. Smiling, he tried again and got the same answer followed by shifting in the foam. A few tries later a tiny helm with big blue optics peeked out at them and, seeing that the big bots looking down at them weren't going to hurt them he whistled the "all-clear" to his brothers and they crawled back out.

"_**So… you're their Guardian now?"**_

"_**Yes, although it's actually just temporary until Wheeljack can get the machine fixed up so he can reverse the effects,"**_

"_**Yeah, I hear it's tough being a single caretaker, this would probably be easier for you if had somebot to be with,"**_

Skyfire laughed dryly "_**Yeah, I guess it would,"**_

After a few breems of just watching the little ones, the Praxian and the twins frontliners left, no doubt to tell the others what they've seen, and Skyfire walked into the hanger and into his personal quarters. After setting the box on the edge of his berth, he sat next to it and pulled the cover off.

Seeing all five pairs of optics look up at him, he smiled down at them. "_**Hey, guys"**_

He reached down the side of the box, being as last time he reached _toward _them didn't end so well, and let them come up and sniff his servo. "_**Want to come out for a little while?" **_he lifted them out one at a time and set them on the berth and let them explore a bit, careful not to let them get too close to the edge.

After they got a good look around, the younger ones played around while Silverbolt crawled over and tried to crawl up Skyfire's leg so the Shuttleformer picked him up and sat back with him curled over his chest just above his spark.

Skyfire sighed sadly; unknown to the other Autobots, he and Silverbolt had been involved in a relationship for quite some time, and Sideswipe's comment about having a mate would make caring for sparklings easier had hit home, especially since one of the sparklings under his care was the one bot he would love to have sparklings with when they were both ready.

His door chime accompanied by a knock drew his attention towards the door and made the sparklings try to hide behind him. A proximity scan let him know who was outside so he could remotely unlock the door. "_**Come in, the door is unlocked"**_

The door slid open to reveal Bumblebee peering in cautiously. "_**Hey, Skyfire, how's it going?**_"

"_**Fine, thank you, and you?"**_

"_**I'm good… uh, is it true?" **_

"_**Let me guess, Jazz told you too,"**_

The yellow scout rubbed the back of his helm "_**Actually, ran into Bluestreak in the hall. Are they really…?"**_

Skyfire motioned for him to be quiet and pointed to his other side. Slowly, the smaller bot snuck over for a look and his intakes hitched in surprise.

Spike came running in, out of breath "What was that about Bumblebee? Oh, hey Skyfire, what's up?"

"Up is the opposite of down and is often where one would find either the sky or the ceiling, but guessing by your reaction to Bumblebee's behavior I'm guessing no one has told you what has happened?"

"Nope, We ran into Bluestreak and the twins in the hallway and they started talking to 'Bee in Cybertronian and he just took off." Bumblebee, after looking to Skyfire for permission, led his smaller friend over to the other side of Skyfire and lifted him onto his shoulder so he could see. As soon as he saw the five tiny fliers huddled against the much larger flier, Spike's mind was full of questions.

After looking at them, then at Skyfire , how they interacted, and weighing the different possibilities in his head and came to first logical conclusion he found—and grinned.

In his excitement, Spike jumped down from Bumblebee's shoulder, ran to the doorway and yelled down the hall "Carly, Chip, come here, Skyfire has _babies!"_

In that instant, and a streak of blue and blond, the girl was in the room beaming excitedly. "Seriously? Where? Don't you joke about that, Spike Witwicky," Carly glared at him, thinking this might actually be a joke, as Chip wheeled himself into the room.

Skyfire smiled and reached down to lift the humans up on the berth one at a time and told Bumblebee he could pull up a chair to where he could see too before he coaxed the sparklings out of hiding.

The humans were quiet, not even moving, until one of the flier sparklings peered over the top of Skyfire's leg, using his shin guards for support. Carly gasped and covered her mouth as Skyfire lifted the sparkling over to his other side and planted his servo against his back to encourage him to go forward and, although it appeared he was blocking an escape, it was actually a Cybertronian way of saying "don't worry, I got your back."

Airraid looked up at Skyfire, who smiled and nodded encouragingly, before slowly crawling forward to investigate the newcomers while Skyfire lifted his brothers across.

The boys looked on with shocked grins as the tiny Aerialbots came closer, while Carly just melted into a "big-sisterly" goo. "Ooh, they are so cute!" she reached forward to hold one but Bumblebee stopped her.

"Hold on there, Carly, you might want to ask Skyfire first, he _is _their Guardian,"

"Oops, sorry." She looked up at Skyfire "May I?"

"Go ahead, just be careful,"

Carly scooped up Fireflight and cuddled him, at first he struggled, but them he found he liked being hugged and snuggled closer.

"Ah…" then a troubling question came to mind.

Chip looked up "You said Skyfire's their 'Guardian', where are their parents?"

Skyfire looked both solemn and confused "They have none, they came from Vector Sigma,"

"You mean like the Aerialbots?"

"Uh, Spike, these _are _the Aerialbots,"

"_WHAT?"_

"H-how…?"

"They walked in when Wheeljack was working on his new invention…"

Spike stopped him "Right, got it, Wheeljack did it. So… how long are they going to be like this?"

"Depends on how long it takes for Wheeljack to finish fixing his machine."

Carly giggled and nuzzled Fireflight back "Ooh no, you are forbidden to grow up any time soon, you are to stay tiny and cute until you absolutely have to grow up,"

Skyfire chuckled "Sorry, Carly, but I don't think we have any say in the matter, no matter how much we want to let them grow up the right way this time. Watch out, he's trying to steal that… thing on your head,"

"What do you mean?" Carly grabbed her blue headband back from the sparkling before he could put it in his mouth.

"Sparklings like to take things and play around with them, and as much as we want them to grow up naturally, we just can't afford to lose any bots right now, both sides have become so desperate for soldiers that they are even handing _children _weapons and insignias and telling them to march on like the others,"

"That's horrible,"

"I know, and we feel horrible because of it,"

Awkward silence then Chip spoke up "So, whose who again?"

"Well, the one Carly is holding is Fireflight, the one I've got here is Silverbolt, the one that leaning against Spike while Bumblebee plays the human version of "peek-a-boo" with him is Airraid, the one messing around with Chip's wheelchair is Skydive and the one still trying to crawl behind me—Where do you think you're going? Get back out here.—is Slingshot," he pulled Slingshot out from behind him and set him in front of them. As soon as his little aft touched the berth, Slingshot shot a dirty look at his caretaker and then glared at the memory foam padding in a pout.

Spike adjusts Airraid so he can lean forward "ah, what's the matter, lil buddy?"

Slingshot leaned away from him *(Who are these crazy people?)*

Fireflight looked over at him *(I don't know, but they seem nice, and they're the same size as us,)*

*(_Maybe they're sparklings too?)* _

*(_They're weird looking sparklings then,_)*

*(_They came with that yellow bot, maybe they're his?)*_ That seemed like a good enough explanation for them.

The humans listened in on their sparkling talk, hearing only the chirps, beeps, mewls, whistles, and other noises it entailed. "Ah, they even make the cutest little sounds,"

"Has anyone else seen them yet?"

"Wheeljack obviously did then he called Prime and the other officers, along with Perceptor and myself, we passed by Bluestreak and the twins on the way here and now the four of you, other than that I don't think so,"

"Well, how about we take them to the Rec. Room and see who all is there?"

"Alright, Let me just put them in their little box,"

Skyfire stood up and pulled up the crate.

"You've been carrying the around in that thing?"

"Well, I could always let them ride in my cockpit, but they'll probably hate me if they remember that when they're back to normal. Besides, this way they get to play around while we are on the way,"

Skyfire looked over at Bumblebee "Would you like to hold one while I put the others in the crate?"

Bumblebee nodded so he handed him Skydive; the two seemed to be getting on well so far and out of the two he was sure would behave he was the only one he was willing to share. After showing Bumblebee how to properly hold a sparkling, he went about carefully placed each one in their little box until they were all playing around in the foam material and placed Skydive in there with them.

"Alright, that's all of them, let's go,"

_In the _

Once they got to the Rec. Room, Skyfire took one look at all the bots in the room and froze in the doorway, clutching the box apprehensively. His Guardian protocols were starting to kick in and they were telling him to keep his little Charges away from strange bots.

Carly noticed he was no longer with them and turned to see him slowly moving back out the door and followed him. "Skyfire, what are you doing out here?"

Skyfire jumped and almost hid the crate behind him "Oh, it's just you," he visibly relaxed and realized, to his horror, while one of his servos held the box protectively the other had been reaching for the subspace holster his weapon was in. "Sorry, I'm a little on edge right now,"

"I understand, if I were in your position, I would be too," Carly was the only being other than the two of them that knew how serious he and Silverbolt were, they had both came to her for "dating advice" in the beginning.

Skyfire sighed "I thought I'd be okay with this, now I'm not so sure. I mean, all those bots in there…" he hugged the box to himself like he thought it would be torn from his servos if he didn't.

"Hey, don't worry, everything's going to be fine, none of the bots here would hurt a sparkling,"

"What if they tried to take them away?"

"Okay, now you're just being ridiculous, It's fine, let them see your little ones, if they try anything with them you have every right to kick their skid plates,"

Skyfire smiled warmly and cautiously crept back into the room.

"Hey, Skyfire, Wha'cha got there?" the question drew attention to him and the object he held as Hound walked up, careful to move slowly; if the rumors he heard were true, the Shuttleformers body language told him if they were and he tried anything stupid it wouldn't end well for him.

"Is that them?"

Skyfire made sure there was adequate distance between them before answering "Yes, they're in here,"

"So, the rumors are true. May I…" Hound waited patiently while the Guardian made sure he wasn't a threat.

Finding none, he nodded and slowly pulled back the cover and let the friendly green scout look inside.

"_**Ah, hey guys,"**_

The sparklings looked up to see yet another strange mech, only this one didn't scare them like the one from before, he seemed really friendly but was willing to give them their space. They tilted their helms like curious puppies and chirped *(Who are you?)*

"_**Remember me? I'm Hound,"**_

"Uh, Hound I don't think they remember anybot from before, otherwise they wouldn't have thrown that bolt at Jazz when he scared them before,"

"How about we sit at a table so Skyfire doesn't have to hold that box the whole time?" Had Spike seen what happened in the corridor he would have known Skyfire _wanted _to hold the box the whole time, but he hadn't and Skyfire wasn't about to tell his friends and teammates "Stay away the frag away from my Charges!"

So they all found a table that was in a corner close to the door that would seat all of them and anyone else that cared to join them; Skyfire sat so he was positioned so he could see everyone in the room as well as anyone coming and going from it.

A couple more 'Bots came over so Skyfire carefully placed them on the tabletop to let them crawl around just like he had in his quarters. Everyone made the appropriate noises and said the usual things for when people saw young children for the first time.

One of them tried to stand up to get a better look at around but fell over sprawled across his brother who squeaked indigently.

"_**Oops, guess you're not ready for that yet, huh, little guy?"**_

After a few minutes, the officers came in, having just completed all the datawork and what not for Wheeljack's latest incident and the current state of the Aerialbots, and saw the latter playing around on a table.

Jazz was on his way to get a cube of energon from the dispenser and pivoted on his heel to come over himself. "Hey, guys, how's it goin'? The little 'uns calmed down from earlier Skyfire?"

"Yes, I believe you just startled them when you practically dove into the crate after them,"

Jazz laughed nervously rubbing the back of his helm before asking permission to approach and pulled up a chair "_**Hey, lil buddies, how's it goin'?"**_

As soon as they saw who it was they all screeched *(AHH! _ IT'S THE SCARY FREAKY DUDE!_)*and scurried over to the first safe place they saw, next to the big mech that had been looking after them.

"_**Hey, there, what's wrong? There's no reason to be afraid of Jazz, is there?"**_

"_**Yeah, I aint gonna hurt ya,"**_

The sparkling-Aerialbots, who hid behind Skyfire's arm, peered over his servo with expressions ranging between "Is the scary monster gone?" and "You're kidding me, right?"

Skyfire looked over and saw Fireflight still wandering around on the table, having gotten lost in the mad dash to relative safety. Picking up the distracted sparkling, He asked Jazz to pull up a chair next to him.

Jazz hesitated, knowing a Guardian would do _anything_ to protect their Charge from anything perceived as a threat, but they both knew the little tykes had to get used to the other bots and pulled a chair over with his ped and sat down.

Skyfire then carefully placed Fireflight in his arm servos, gently shushing and reassuring him every time he tried to fuss until he was situated.

Fireflight went still and stiff as soon as he was being held by the strange mech, but didn't scream because he knew his brothers were nearby and, somehow, he knew the bigger mech would save him if this stranger tried to hurt him.

"_**Hey, buddy," **_the stranger talked different, but he seemed nice and he had a visor, just like Slingshot.

*(_You're the one they threw my "shiny" at…)* _he peeped.

Jazz's audio horn twitched "_**Wha' was tha'? I didn't quite catch that?"**_

'_Oh my gosh, that thingie on his helm moved!' _ He reached up to try to get it to do it again so he could get a better look.

Jazz noticed this "_**Oh, ya like it when ah do **__this__**?**__" _he wiggled his audio horns like "Lil Alfalfa" does with his ears.

Fireflight squealed with laughter and clapped his little servos while his little winglets fluttered adorably.

"_**AAAH,"**_ he nuzzled the sparkling, who giggled and tried to grab his visor. "He's so cute!" Jazz smiled down at the tiny flier as he held him, a certain glint in his visor that didn't escape anyone's notice.

Skyfire gave the Saboteur a knowing smile "_**Makes you want one, doesn't it Jazz?"**_

"_**Mmm-hmm,"**_

Skyfire got up and reached out to pull the Aerial-baby away from Jazz, who almost whimpered his displeasure until the Shuttleformer leaned forward "_**You know… Prowl's right over there, I bet if you asked **__really __**nicely…"**_

Jazz immediately perked up and, after handing Fireflight back, he thanked Skyfire and sprinted across the room to tackle his unsuspecting Bondmate to the ground.

*_Prowl's POV*_

Prowl should have been suspicious when his Bond with Jazz suddenly went quiet, too quiet, and that meant he was hiding something, usually if he was hurting or he was up to something. Being as he knew for a fact his mate was in the same room and in perfect health he assumed it was the latter.

One klick the tactician was calmly chatting with Prime, Ratchet and Ironhide, the next something crashed into him from behind.

Prowl looked around, completely disorientated, only to find that his mate had not only managed to knock him to the ground, but the impact had activated the sirens on his back.

"_**Jazz what are you doing?"**_

"_**Oh, you know, I was just over there with the sparklin's and it gave me a few… ideas,"**_ Jazz grinned, visor flashing suggestively, as he circled the other black-and-white's frame.

Prowl looked up at the other officers with an "Oh, come on be reasonable," look on his face plates. "_**Aren't you going to do something?"**_

"_**Oh, we would but we know for a fact you'll be giving as good as you get as soon as he gets you behind closed doors, so we'll allow it,"**_

Prowl's faceplates froze in mortification as he was dragged by the ankles to parts unknown… neither mech was seen for several joors after that.

*regular pov*

They all watched as the black-and-white mech dragged the other out of the room. The Aerialbots looked at them, frightened by the noise and confused by it all, and then up at Skyfire, wanting answers.

"_**Don't worry, they're just going to go… play by themselves for a while,"**_

Skyfire set Fireflight back down with his brothers who immediately surrounding him, sniffing him and checking him over.

*(You okay? What did he do to you?)*

*(He didn't do anything bad, but those things on his helm moved, he looked so silly!)

*(Really?)*

*(yeah, he seemed really… nice,)*

Ratchet came over to talk to them "How's everything going over here?"

"Good,"

He looked over at Skyfire "Have the sparklings been fed yet?"

"Not yet, I'll go do that now,"

"Just heat up the cube I gave you earlier, they each get one bottle of it so it should be enough and they'll most likely fall into recharge afterwards,"

"Okay," Skyfire got up but then hesitated, who was going to watch them while he heated up the energon?

"Don't worry, we'll keep an optic on them for you,"

"Thank you,"

Skyfire went over to the heating unit—basically a Cybertronian microwave oven—put the cube he had been keeping in his subspace inside, entering the code to get it operational and waited.

Normally, Skyfire was a very patient mech, but he found himself tapping his ped as he snuck occasional glances over at the table he just left, wanting to get back to his Charges already, until the machine beeped and took the cube out and carefully carried it back to where the sparklings played on the table top under the watchful eye of their little audience.

"Okay, guys, I think it's time for little sparklings to get their fuel now,"

"Are you going to feed them here?"

Ratchet stepped in "Actually, it's probably better if he has some privacy the first time, in case they put up a fuss.

The humans and a few 'Bots groaned halfheartedly, wanting to spend more time with the little cuties. "Don't worry, they'll still be around later if you still want to see them,"

Skyfire double-checked to see if the seal on the cube was intact so it wouldn't leak inside his subspace before he put it away, so he wouldn't have to hold it and his frame could keep it warm for them, and put the sparklings back in their box.

Airraid, Fireflight and Silverbolt each made sure to wave to everyone before disappearing from sight, Skydive jumped right off his servo—nearly giving the Shuttleformer a spark attack—and landed with a *plompf* sound in the packing material. Slingshot just sat quietly until he was back inside.

Ratchet told him he would show him how to feed them the first time so he'd know how later, Skyfire nodded his thanks.

"See you all later,"

"Later, Skyfire, bye kids,"

Skyfire picked up the crate and went back to his quarters waving slightly to his friends as he went.

* * *

**An: Many "Thank you"s with Energon goodies on top to everyone that reviewed and favorited this story so far; Seeker Midnight, Juana2004, Lisa776, Kageshi, Jade Aislin, firebird234, Genoa2011, qaz1234,I love all yaoi, Starscreamfan, , kusicielka, Azoth Hg and ShiTiger to name a few. **

**Comments, suggestions and predictions are welcome, any flames will be converted into energon to be made into energon goodies for the nice people that review. I also put a new poll up for this story on my profile if anyone wants to put in their vote. Until next time…**

**Hugs and Mugs,**

**Lady Quickshft**


	3. Chapter 3

Growing Our Wings

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC's.

Rated T just to be safe, some slash and possible adult language from the older bots, if not now then in later chapters.

Talking: "English or other Earth language,"

"_**Cybertronian,**_"

'_thoughts_'

:Comm. link:

(Bond talk)

*(_Sparkling talk_)*

* * *

Skyfire brought the sparklings to his quarters so they could have some privacy while he fed them some energon before putting them down for the night.

He got the cube of sparkling grade energon Ratchet had given him out of his subspace along with a cone shaped container which acts as a Cybertronian "bottle" that he got from Ratchet on his way back to his quarters from the Rec. Room.

After quickly checking the data pad Ratchet gave him to see how this was done Skyfire carefully poured the contents into the lip of the bottle, using the corner of the cube as a funnel, he filled the bottle to the desired level and set it down on the berth. Once that task was complete, the newly-appointed Guardian turned to the box to see all five sparklings sitting in the packing material looking up at him sleepily.

Skyfire chuckled softly "_**Alright, who's first?"**_ he noticed Air Raid was about to drop into recharge and picked him up. "_**Here, let's get some energon into your systems, then you can recharge, ok?"**_ Skyfire picked up the bottle and held it to the sparkling's lip components until he smelt the energon and instinctively latched on and started to suckle the sweet sticky stuff down greedily.

Normally, sparklings feed off of their Creator's energon from a fuel line that connects to the adult's spark chamber but some, like adoptive Creator-Caretakers, make due by feeding them the same way Skyfire was, he had kept the cube of special sparkling energon in a subspace pocket next to his spark chamber to keep it fresh and warm.

The sounds of Air Raid feeding accompanied by the sounds of the running systems of all the Cybertronians in the room gave the room a calming effect, Skyfire dimmed the lights to add to it while he checked the datapad again to see what he had to do when AirRaid was done. Once he could hear hollow sounds indicating the container was empty, Skyfire took it back and set it down. Ignoring the whine of protest that threatened to become an all-out cry, he held the sparkling against his shoulder and patted him gently on the back plates to calm him and get rid of any air bubbles in the little one's tanks.

After hearing said little one sigh before he nodded off against his shoulder, Skyfire noticed something in the corner that wasn't there before; a small recharge berth with raised edges. He went over for a closer look, it appeared to be a "toddler" sized bed with crib panels attached to the sides.

There was a note inside, picking it up Skyfire saw it read "_Found this in storage, we figured the sparklings could use a recharge berth they could all stay together in. It's actually a berth for sparklings when they just get their youngling upgrades, so they should have enough room,_

_ Signed, the Autobots"_

Skyfire smiled as he set the note on his desk, making a mental note for himself to thank the others, and carefully placed Air Raid on the memory foam padding that lined the berth.

Then he sat down and refilled the bottle for the next sparkling, Skydive was starting to lean to the side with his dim little optics already half-shuttered. "_**Okay, Skydive, your turn,"**_

Skyfire picked him up and held him in the crook of one arm-servo while he held the bottle in the other servo and fed the darker-colored mechling. Once he was finished, Skyfire patted him on the back until he huffed and slumped forward, already in recharge.

Skyfire put him with Air Raid and made sure the two didn't wake up before returning to the other three, filling up the bottle as he sat down.

Inside the box, the three sparklings sat patiently waiting for their brothers to come back. When they didn't, Silverbolt and Slingshot started to worry but Fireflight just leaned against Silverbolt, staring off into space.

Then it was Slingshot's turn, and unlike the other two, he _did _fuss. He whimpered and tried to push the bottle away, only succeeding in sloshing its contents onto himself. "_**Oh, Slingshot…"**_ Slinghot sniffed the pale pink stuff on his servos and found it smelled just like the sweet treat he had gotten earlier and licked it off, looking for more when it was gone.

"_**You want some more?"**_ Slingshot chirped an impatient *(_No, duh!_)* Of course he wanted some more.

"_**Ok, here you go, just don't spill this time,**_" it took a couple tries just like the first before the sparkling realized the yummy stuff was coming out of the cone and latched on, slurping the last bits of it down.

Skyfire patted his back before putting him with the other two and made sure he curled up with them and went into recharge before refilling the bottle again and reaching for Fireflight, who chirped and curled against him like a kitten trying to sit in someone's lap.

Feeding him was also a challenge, but only because he kept squirming happily and almost knocked the bottle over a few times. Once he was done he patted the sparkling's back until he curled against his neck with a sigh and fell into recharge.

Skyfire went to put him down, only to realize the tiny sparkling had latched onto him in his sleep and was hanging off of his neck, like from that scene from that movie they watched last movie night where two men that were Sires with children of their own opened a "day care center" called "Daddy Day Care," where they watched other people's children while the Creators were at work, the scene where one of the children clung to him when they were trying to move the kids to a more appropriate place to recharge.

Snorting a soft laugh at his predicament, Skyfire reached up and gently unhooked the tiny digits one by one until he could fold Fireflight's arm servos across his chest and set him down. Slingshot reached out and unerringly pulled his brother to the center of the pile, causing the youngest Aerialbot to chirp in his recharge.

Skyfire smiled before pouring the last dose of energon into the bottle and picking up Silverbolt, who latched onto the lip of the cone and drank. Skyfire smiled down at his lover-now-turned-sparkling. "_**You know, you are rather cute. Maybe I should start taking image captures to show you when you're back to normal**_,"

'_If Wheeljack can turn you back to normal that is…'_ Skyfire shook such thoughts from his processor and focused on the sleepy optics looking up at him that were becoming steadily sleepier until the last of the energon was gone and Silverbolt yawned into his little fist.

Without thinking about it, Skyfire placed a gentle kiss on the little tyke's helm while he patted him on the back before placing him with his brothers, who all curled together for the night.

"_**Good night, little ones. See you in the morning,"**_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next morning Skyfire got up earlier than usual; being woke from recharge by the sounds of fussy sparklings in the small recharge berth next to his.

After getting another cube of sparkling energon out of his subspace—he had gotten a few extra from Ratchet and put one in his subspace pocket close to his spark chamber before he went into recharge to keep it warm for them.—he picked each of them up and fed them one at a time.

Once the five Aerialbot sparklings were fed he put them back in their little box and carried them out of the room. As he walked to the Rec. room to get himself a cube of energon he held the box close to him, glad he switched out the packing material for an actual blanket.

Of course as soon as he entered the room the others wanted to see the sparklings. By the time Skyfire got his cube and sat down at his usual spot a group of bots had already started to approach, but they knew they needed his "ok" before actually "meeting" the little fliers—fliers were notorious for being highly defensive of sparklings whether they were theirs or not, and none of them knew how Skyfire would react. The ones that saw him in action in the Arctic didn't want that type of rage directed at them.

Of course, he didn't actually have a problem with them giving the sparklings attention—though they all had a near spark failure when he took them out of the box and Fireflight got a little too close to the edge.

Just after the little ones realized the bots surrounding them were friendly enough for them to play around on the table, Jazz came in and sat down by the table.

"_**Hey Skyfire, hey Aerialbabies,"**_ he greeted the Shuttleformer and cooed to the sparklings.

"_**Aerialbabies?"**_ Skyfire raised an optic ridge at the saboteur while he broke up another play-fight between Air Raid and Skydive.

Jazz grinned "_**Uh huh, that way we can differentiate between them as sparklin's an' them as adult mechs when they eventually get back into their adult frames,"**_

Hound, who was also at the table, gave a mock groan "_**Ah Jazz, don't remind us. Some of us actually like having sparklings around,"**_

"_**Ah know, but even if we let 'em start over from the beginnin' they will still end up as grown mechs again,"**_

Skyfire kept the slight wince internal, knowing it was selfish of him to want them back to normal just so he could have his secret lover back.

Bluestreak bounced over and said "hi" to just about everyone at the table and looked at Jazz "_**Hey, Jazz where's Prowl? I got patrol with Bumblebee this morning and we were supposed to report to him before we go but we can't find him anywhere,"**_

Jazz smiled at Bluestreak "_**He's in our quarters, Blue. But don't wake him yet, Ah got the maps for the patrol route in mah office if ya need it,"**_

Bluetreak tilted his helm, confused "_**Prowl's still in recharge? Is he ok? Is he sick?"**_

Jazz nodded "_**Prowler's fine, he's jus' sleepin' off last night… and half of yesterday**_," he got this sly look on his faceplate that hinted just what the tactician might be sleeping off.

Bluestreak held up his servos and stammered "_**O-ok, I just wanted to know what route we were supposed to be patrolling this morning, what you and my bro do in your time alone is your business,"**_

Jazz pretended to be disappointed "_**What, ya don't want to hear about…"**_

The young gunner looked mortified and covered his audios "_**La la la la, I'm not listening! La la la…"**_

Jazz smirked and raised his voice slightly so he could be heard over Bluestreak's chatter "_**You an' Bee were supposed to cover the area 'round where we found the first space bridge the 'Cons built here on Earth in case ol' Megatron decided to try anythin' there again,"**_

Bluestreak uncovered his audios and smiled "_**Thanks Jazz,"**_ he waved to everyone on his way out of the Rec. Room.

After that everyone gradually dispersed to go about their duties for the day and once Skyfire finished his energon he gathered up the sparklings and put his cube in the recycling unit on his way out to go to the labs.

Once he was there he walked in and was surprised to see Wheeljack waiting for him.

The engineer's optics crinkled with a smile and his helm fins flashed blue "_**Hey, Skyfire,"**_

"_**Hello, Wheeljack, what brings you here?"**_ Skyfire knew that while Wheeljack did work in the labs from time to time the mech had his own workshop in a separate area so if he had one of his infamous accidents it wouldn't affect the important and sensitive equipment they kept in the lab.

The Lancia pulled a folded up frame from behind his back and tapped his ped against a box that was on the floor next to him. "_**Ratchet asked us to look through the stuff that we had in storage from when Bumblebee was a sparkling and I thought you would want something for the little guys to do in here while you're working," **_

Skyfire recognized the thing in the shorter bot's servos as a fold-up sparkling playpen. "_**Oh, thank you. You need help setting that up?"**_

"_**No, I got it**_," Wheeljack started to unfold the contraption but his digits got caught in the sliding pieces. "_**Ouch**_" he dropped it on the floor and shook his servo.

Skyfire rolled his optics, trying not to laugh, and set the box containing the Aerialbabies on the floor so he could help Wheeljack set up a small play area for the sparklings in the corner of the lab where they would be out of the way and Skyfire could keep an optic sensor on them while he worked.

Once everything was set up, the box had contained a few toys and a big fluffy blanket they had set out, Skyfire moved the box closer and lifted the tiny fliers out one at a time.

The sparklings looked around curiously at the new place they had been placed in. Wheeljack chuckled and leaned over the edge of the play pen "_**Hey, kids,"**_

They all leaned away from the strange new bot and Slingshot tried to hit him with a stuffed petro rabbit but accidently hit Skydive. Skydive squeaked and fell to the side onto the floor.

"_**Whoops, sorry guys, didn't mean to scare you,"**_

Skydive was quiet for a minute but the adults saw the coolant welling up in his optics and then he started to cry.

Skyfire picked him up and shushed him gently. "_**Shh, it's okay Skydive, please don't cry**_," then he looked at Slingshot who tried another swing at Wheeljack like it was his fault his brother was crying. "_**Slingshot, no hitting,**_" The little mechling gave him a look that said "You're not the boss of me," before swinging again.

"_**Alright, that's it,"**_ Skyfire shifted Skydive so he was holding him with one servo and use his free servo to pick up Slingshot by the scruff bar and put him back in the box "_**Looks like someone needs a time out,"**_

Almost immediately Slingshot scooted over to the edge of the box and pressed his servos against the sides, chirruping for his brothers.

Skyfire knew the five of them couldn't be separated for long so he put the box inside the playpen so he could at least have his brothers nearby. "_**I'm sorry but you need to learn to behave yourself. You can come out of there in one breem, you and your brothers will be fine until then,"**_

Skyfire sat down and placed Skydive in his lap "_**Now let's have a look at that,"**_ he pulled the tiny servos away from his face with the tip of his digit and examined Skydive's optics and the spot on his helm where the toy made contact. "_**Hmm, no dents so it doesn't look too bad, I think you were more scared than actually hurt, weren't you,"**_

Skydive gradually calmed down and sniffled and looked around. "_**That's right, you're ok,"**_ Skyfire put him down in the play area with the others "_**You guys play nice now, I'll be right over here if you need me,"**_

When he straightened back up he saw Wheeljack looking at him with a smug knowing look.

"_**What?"**_

Wheeljack shrugged "_**Nothing. It's just that when Prime asked you to look after them you didn't seem to want to, now you're acting like you've been doing it their whole lives,"**_

Skyfire rubbed his helm, not sure how to explain "_**It's not that I didn't want to…"**_

"_**You just weren't sure how?"**_

Skyfire looked over at Wheeljack "_**It was because I didn't want to make things awkward between me and Silverbolt when they got back to normal and we tried to pick up where we left off,"**_

Wheeljack looked confused "_**Where you left… off?"**_ then his optics widened "_**Oh, You and Silverbolt… oh,"**_

"_**Yeah, 'oh',"**_

Wheeljack was quiet for a moment "_**Does anyone else know?"**_

Skyfire shook his helm and looked over at them exploring their little area and prodding the toys with their digits to try to figure out what they are. "_**The only ones that know besides us would be Carly, she was the one we both went to for advise when we were starting out," **_he looked back at Wheeljack. "_**Now do you see why I didn't jump at the chance to play 'parent' with them?"**_

Wheeljack nodded solemnly "_**Yeah, I see your point now,"**_ he turned and started heading for the door "_**I'd better go get back to work on that de-ager,"**_ he looked back "_**And don't worry, your secret's safe with me,"**_

Skyfire smiled "_**Thanks Wheeljack, and good luck,"**_

The engineer waved him off "_**You're going to need that as much as I do, Skyfire," **_and with that he was gone.

After making sure the sparklings were safely inside the little play pen and playing with the toys available—except for Slingshot who still had six Earth minutes left of his time out—he went over to his work station and made a few slides out of some samples that were recently taken so he could look at them through a microscope, making sure to look over at the area in the corner occasionally.

After a few minutes, the sparklings looked over at their caretaker and started chirping amongst themselves.

*(What's he doing?)*

*(I don't know.)*

*(It looks like he's looking at something.)*

*What's he looking at?)*

*(I don't know, I can't see.)*

After realizing a breem had passed, Skyfire went over to lift Slingshot out of the box. "_**Okay, Slingshot time to come out,"**_

Suddenly, the alarm went off. The noise scared the sparklings since they never heard it before so they all screamed and tried to hide.

"_**Okay, never mind, back in the box," **_Skyfire lowered Slingshot back into the box "_**Everyone back in the box," **_he placed all five Aerialbabies in the crate and carefully put it in his carrying hold and went out into the hallway to see what was going on.

Out in the hallway Autobots were running past him, gearing up for a fight.

Skyfire caught sight of Ratchet trying to flag him over to the med. bay door and got there the same time Wheeljack came trotting up from his work shop. "_**Ratchet, what's going on?"**_

Ratchet let Wheeljack slip into the med. bay before shepherding the Shuttleformer inside. "_**The Decepticons intercepted Bluestreak and Bumblebee on patrol, there's a whole troop of them on their way here right now," **_he noticed Skyfire didn't have the crate in his servos. "_**Skyfire, where are Silverbolt, Skydive, Slingshot, Air Raid and Fireflight?"**_

Skyfire looked down the hall and in the rafters for Decepticon spies before stepping into the med. bay and opening his cockpit. "_**They're in here,"**_

As the glass canopy slid up, Air Raid popped out waving his servos and making a garbled noise like he was trying to shout "Boo!" at them.

Skyfire chuckled and caught him with one servo before looked back up at the two mechs standing before him. "_**I put them in my carrying hold when the alarm went off because it scared them and I wanted to keep them someplace safe in case the Decepticons showed up,"**_

Ratchet smiled at him while Wheeljack wiggled his digits to try to get Air Raid to play with them. "_**Good call. Speaking of which, Optimus Prime wants you and the sparklings to stay in the med. bay with us until we're sure they won't try to make a grab at them,"**_

This thought worried Skyfire. "_**Does Megatron even know about them?"**_

"_**No and we'd like to keep it that way,"**_

Once everyone that was supposed to be in the med. bay was inside and the bots that were supposed to guard the base while Prime and a troop of Autobots went to battle were at their posts, Ratchet shut the doors and went about getting the med. bay ready for any bots that came back injured.

Wheeljack and Perceptor were already helping him with that and Skyfire took the sparklings into Ratchet's office—as the CMO ordered him to—so he could calm them down.

Five little pairs of scared baby blue optics looked up at him—one set was hidden by a tiny visor—scared and seeking comfort. Skyfire smiled down at them and rubbed each of their helms. "_**It's okay guys, nothing bad is going to happen,**_" he added the "_**I promise**_" in a lower voice so no one else heard him.

After a few hours of waiting they got a call saying they had successfully run the Decepticons off but there were a few injured that would need to be transported back to base. Those that were mostly unharmed would guard them while the injured mechs that were still able to drive would be sent back to base for repairs.

Once they closed off the comm. link, Ratchet facepalmed. "_**Great, now how am I going to deal with the injured bots that are already on their way here **__and __**get the mechs that need to be transported back here?"**_

"_**How many need to be transported, Ratchet? Maybe we can work on the ones that are good enough to drive until you get back from getting them ready to travel,"**_

Ratchet pulled his servo away to look at Wheeljack. _**"About a dozen of them, Optimus Prime being one of them. There's no way I'd be able to carry **__him __**inside my alt. mode like I can with any other bot and I can only carry one at a time,"**_

Skyfire got an idea. "_**I probably could…"**_ he looked back at the Aerialbabies "_**But who would watch the sparklings?**_"

Just then, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe came into the med. bay. They were the first ones back and looked pretty beat up.

Sideswipe looked at Ratchet with a sheepish smile on his face plate when the irate medic spotted them "_**Uh… hehe Hey Ratchet,"**_

Ratchet rubbed his optics "_**Why am I not surprised you two came back injured,"**_

"_**Hey, at least it's not as bad as we usually get!"**_

Ratchet took out his wrench and gestured toward the med. berths "_**Just sit down, I'll get to you in a minute but right now we're kind of in the middle of something so unless one of you has something life threatening you're just going to have to wait a moment,"**_

Sunstreaker grumbled as he and Sideswipe sat on separate med. berths "_**What's more important than fixing your patients when they come back injured?"**_

Ratchet huffed and started on Sunstreaker first, knowing the yellow mech will be less irritable when he was fixed up and could touch up on his precious paint job. "_**Finding someone that could watch the sparklings so Skyfire can help bring back the injured that couldn't come back on their own,"**_

Sideswipe perked up "_**Sparklings? Oh, oh, Can I watch them?" **_ He held up his good servo like he was in looked like he was about to say no so he looked up at Skyfire with pleading optics "_**Ple-e-ease?"**_

Skyfire thought about it and didn't see any harm in letting the smaller mech watch the sparklings as long as he was careful with them. "_**Alright, you can watch them after you're repaired…"**_

Sideswipe was about to start cheering so Skyfire held up a servo and cut him off "_**… as long as you are careful with them,"**_

Sideswipe nodded excitedly "_**Okay, I'll be good,"**_

Skyfire waited until Wheeljack fixed Sideswipe's arm and popped all the dents out before bringing the sparklings to the Rec. Room where Sideswipe could keep an optic on them where they would be out of the way of repairs and there was enough mechs coming and going that Sideswipe wouldn't actually be left alone with the sparklings for very long.

Before he left he set the sparklings out on a blanket and knelt down beside them and rubbed each of their helms. "_**You guys behave for Sideswipe. I'll be back before you know it,"**_

Sideswipe sat down on the floor and distracted the sparklings by making faces at them while Skyfire got up and walked out. Unknown to anyone else, Silverbolt watched him go and saw him go out into the hallway.

After a few minutes, Sunstreaker came in and sat on the couch. The Aerialbabies looked up when they heard him come in; when they did the other sparklings realized their caretaker was gone and looked around for him, talking amongst themselves in sparkling-talk.

*(Where did he go?)*

*(And what is this idiot doing now?)* Slingshot stared at Sideswipe who had started playing peek-a-boo with them but they didn't pay him any mind, they were more concerned about where Skyfire went.

Silverbolt pointed to the door *(I saw him go that way. He said he would be back before we knew it so he should have been back by now.)*

*(Come on, let's go find him!)* The Aerialbabies waited until Sideswipe covered his optics before crawling behind him.

"_**Where are the sparklings?…" **_Sideswipe uncovered his optics "_**There they-," **_Then he saw the sparklings weren't there anymore. "_**WHERE ARE THE SPARKLINGS?!"**_

Sunstreaker slumped back against the couch and huffed. "_**Seriously, Sides, stop playing peek-a-boo with them. You look ridiculous when you do that,"**_

Sideswipe frantically started searching for the sparklings, checking under the blanket as if they might have crawled underneath it. "_**No, seriously, where are the sparklings?" **_looked behind him to see if they had gotten past him but they had just made it out the door by the time he thought to look there.

Sunstreaker looked over and saw that the Aerialbabies were in fact gone. His panic mirrored his brother's. "_**YOU LOST THEM?!"**_

Sideswipe dug his digits into the side of his helm. "_**Oh man, Skyfire's going to kill us!"**_

Sunstreaker grumbled "_**Hopefully he gets you first so I at least get to watch," **_before he lifted his twin to his peds by the scruff bar. "_**Come on, they couldn't have gone far and if we find them before he gets back he can't get too mad at us,"**_

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Out in the hallway, The Aerialbabies crawled around, occasionally tumbling over each other and their own limbs, to try to find Skyfire.

*(Where'd he go?)*

*(I dunno)*

*(We're never gonna find him out here.)*

*(Sure we are, just keep looking)*

Further down the corridor, Blaster came out of the quarters he shared with Tracks and heard chirps, beeps and mewls of sparklings coming from down the hall. Having worked with sparklings before the war, Blaster knew the sounds he was hearing were the kind sparklings made when they were lost and looking for their Creator/Caretakers.

Following the noises he found the Aerialbabies toddling around like they were looking for someone. Moving slowly so he wouldn't startle them, he got as close as he could without scaring them and crouched down to make himself look smaller and less threatening "_**Hey, little mechs, what're ya doing out here all by yo'selves?"**_

They shied away so he smiled at them and made a chirrup he learned meant *(Come here, I'm not going to hurt you)*

Hesitantly, they crawled over and into his waiting arm-servos. "_**I take it ya guys are lost?"**_

Not getting any answer from them, nor was he expecting one, Blaster contacted Skyfire. :Yo, Skyfire, where ya at, mech?:

After a few moments he got a response :I am currently en route to where Prime and the others are.:

Knowing the Shuttleformer wouldn't have just left his charges unattended but not wanting to freak him out, Blaster chose his next wording carefully. :So who's watchin' the sparklin's right now?:

:Sideswipe and Sunstreaker are _supposed _to be watching them but being as you are calling me to ask about them I am assuming they aren't doing a very good job.:

Blaster looked around to see if either of the twins was nearby. :Wow, mech, you must be psychic.:

Skyfire sighed over the comm. line :If I were I would have foreseen this and found someone else to watch them.:

Blaster chuckled and carefully picked up a sparkling in each arm-servo. :A'ight, ya do whatever ya have to, Skyfire, Ah'll make sure the kids are looked after.:

:Thank you, Blaster.:

:No prob, mah mech, Blaster out.: he cut off the connection and realized something, these were gestalt sparklings, they couldn't be separated for very long so he would have to move them at the same time. Problem was he couldn't carry five sparklings in his servos at the same time.

Striking genius, he contacted Tracks. :Yo, Tracks, buddy, can ya come help me with somethin'?:

The Corvette's thick accent came through his comm. link :What is it?:

:Ah need a little help carryin' somethin' to our quarters, could ya meet meh in the hallway by the Rec. Room?:

There was a pause before :Fine, I'll be right there.: and the line was disconnected.

After a few minutes Tracks came around the corner and saw Blaster with the Aerialbabies and immediately put his servos on his hips "_**No, Blaster, we are **__not __**keeping them,"**_

Blaster looked up at him, as did the sparklings "_**Ah, come on, mech, Ah never said we were gonna keep them, Ah just wanted to keep an eye on them for Skyfire until he gets back since the twins ah shirking their duties again,"**_

Tracks sniffed and checked his paint for scuffs he might have missed when he was buffing his armor when Blaster called him "_**I really don't see how that is my problem,"**_

Choosing his weapon carefully, Blaster picked up Fireflight. "_**Ah, c'mon, Tracks, look at that face. How could ya say no to that face?"**_

Fireflight looked up at the strange blue mech, afraid at first, but then he saw the winglets on his back showing he was a flight-capable ground mech and, most importantly, he saw how _shiny_ the mech was.

"_**Like this, n…" **_Tracks noticed Fireflight was reaching for him and making happy sparkling noises "_**What's it doing?"**_

"_**He, Fireflight is a 'he', Tracks. And he's just admiring yo' paintjob,"**_

Tracks looked perplexed "_**My… paintjob?"**_

Blaster pulled Fireflight closer to his chest so he wasn't just held out like he was going to drop him. "_**Uh huh, sparklin's like things that are shiny an' brightly colored, an' you happen to be both so the little bots obviously love ya,"**_

Tracks thought about it for a moment, surely anything that liked the paintjob he worked so hard to keep looking as good as it did couldn't be all bad. "_**Oh, fine,"**_

Blaster grinned and shifted Fireflight so he could pick up Air Raid in his other arm-servo and hold Slingshot between them in his servos. "_**Yo' the best, Tracks,"**_

"_**Yes, yes, I know," **_Tracks picked up the remaining two sparklings in his arm servos and the two started off in the direction of their quarters.

The sparklings were anxious at first, they didn't know what was going on, but Blaster used a sparkling talk phrase that every Youth Sector worker was required to learn *(It's alright, your Caretaker will be back soon, he asked us to look after you until he gets back.)*

The sparklings calmed down a little bit after that and were mostly quiet.

Once they got back to their quarters, Tracks entered in the code as best he could while holding a sparkling in each servo since Blaster was holding the other three and let them all inside.

"_**Just set them on my berth, I think I might have something we can put them in to keep them from wandering off again," **_Tracks set Silverbolt and Skydive on Blaster's berth while said mech did the same for the three he was holding and dug around underneath it for something he had hidden behind a few boxes containing his music collection and what few belongings he was able to bring with him from Cybertron.

When he crawled back out he was pulling something covered in a cloth with him. Once he and the object were out he pulled the cloth off.

To Tracks' surprise it was the start of a Youngling berth, the main part of the frame hadn't been built yet so it was basically a small soft pallet with raised edges. "_**Blaster… where did you get that?"**_

Blaster pushed the pallet so it was against the wall at the foot of his berth. "_**Ah made it. Ah've been working on it for 'bout a week now,"**_

Tracks did the math and was confused "_**I thought the Aerialbots were just turned into sparklings yesterday?"**_

Blaster turned his back to him and shuttered his optics as he gripped the edge of the pallet. "_**…Ah wasn't making it for these**__**little ones,"**_

Tracks was even more confused now '_Why would Blaster need a Youngling berth?' _then it clicked. "_**Blaster, are you…"**_

Blaster sighed through his vents and started to place the Aerialbabies into the small berth one at a time. "_**Ratchet examined meh last week, he scanned mah spark and found the core was dilating. Mah spark is gonna start splittin' soon," **_He smiled up at his friend "_**So Ah guess this means Ah'll have Cassettes of mah own before ya know it,"**_

Tracks stared at his friend for a moment before going over to sit on Blaster's berth so he could sit next to him after he had seen to the sparklings.

Since the Youngling berth was actually spacious enough for them to move around Blaster figured the Aerialbabies would need something to do so he dug around in the boxes he had pushed aside under his berth and found some Cybertronian blocks that either lit up, changed color or made noises when one pressed on one of the sides and some rubber band balls.

Tracks eyed the toys curiously "_**Where did you get those?"**_

"_**Ah saved the blocks from when Ah helped out at that Care center in the Youth Sector back on Cybertron an' the rubber band balls Ah made myself,"**_

Tracks tried to remember a time when he saw his roommate working on such a project "_**When did you have time to make those? I don't think I've ever seen to recall seeing you making rubber band balls,"**_

"_**Did Ah ever mention Ah get **__really __**bored at the Officers' meetings when the only reason Ah'm there is to tell them if anyone's been eavesdropping on our calls and record what they all say to be filed away for later reference?" **_Blaster sat on his berth next to his friend and they both leaned back against the wall while keeping a sensor on the sparklings.

After a moment of silence where the only noises were from the sparklings and from their systems working, Tracks looked over at Blaster "_**So… Cassettes, huh?"**_

Placing a servo on his chest, Blaster smiled slightly and nodded.

"_**You excited?" **_Tracks knew this was a trick question; Blaster had wanted Cassettes of his own for a long time.

Blaster nodded again "_**Yeah, Ah know it's gonna be a big responsibility an' with the whole war going on it's not gonna be easy but Ah just feel… Ah can't describe it but Ah just feel so… ready, ya know," **_he looked over at Tracks and gave him a goofy smile that made him look like he was drunk. "_**Did Ah ever tell ya yer awesome?"**_

Track smirked and folded his arm-servos behind his helm "_**Tell me something I don't know,"**_

"_**A'ight, did ya know that the guy that came up with that 'Mickey Mouse' character the humans like so much was actually afraid o' mice?"**_

Tracks looked over at him "_**Seriously?"**_

"_**Seriously,"**_

"…_**Humans are strange,"**_

"_**Yeah,"**_

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_Back with the twins_

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker had just discreetly told everyone else on the base that would help them find the lost sparklings and ask if they would help find them… and not tell Skyfire they were ever lost at all.

Fortunately, they all agreed to both terms and were willing to help; nobody wanted anything to happen to the sparklings, or to face Skyfire's wrath if anything happened to his charges under their watch.

The only place no one checked was the security hub, because they all knew Red Alert would have told them if five flier sparklings suddenly toddled their way into his security room and they didn't want to disturb him while he was in there.

Knowing the Corvette was the only other 'Bot left in the base that wasn't busy getting the med. bay ready for the wounded that were being transported back to base, Sunstreaker banged his fist on Tracks' door shouting "_**TRACKS GET YOUR FAT AFT OUT HERE AND HELP US FIND THE SPARKLINGS!"**_

Inside the room, the Corvette's helm whipped around to look at the door. '_Oh. No. He. DIDN'T!' _

Tracks stormed out snarling "_**Who are you calling a fat aft, you optic-bleeding brute? And would you keep it down? Blaster found the sparklings earlier and brought them here. They just went into recharge,**_"

Sunstreaker stopped with his fist still raised to pound on the door again despite having stepped back when Tracks came out. "_**Oh, okay. Sideswipe, found them! And what did you just call me…?"**_

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_At the battle field_

Skyfire flew over the battle field and saw the Autobots that were still able were helping the more severely injured get to cover while a few were keeping watch in case the Decepticons came back. He sent a ping to Optimus Prime saying he was landing and got a comm. back.

:Be careful, Skyfire. Starscream was at the battle but no one has seen him leave yet, he could still be around here somewhere.:

Skyfire slowed down to prepare for descent and scanned around, hoping the Decepitcon SIC wasn't around.

Unfortunately, luck wasn't on his side at that moment. The red-and-white Seeker flew straight at the Shuttleformer and transformed into bipedal mode to cling to his former friend's alt. mode. "_**I've got you now, traitor,"**_

"_**Hey, let go, no hitch hikers!" **_Skyfire barrel rolled and flew a few loop-de-loops to try to throw the smaller flyer off of him.

But Starscream held on and sneered at him "_**But your Autobot friends do this to me and my Trine all the time, I want to see what the big deal is**__,"_ then the wind shear blew a certain scent off of Skyfire and towards Starscream's olfactory sensors. It took him a moment to recognize it but when he did his optics widened. '_Sparklings… but there hasn't been sparklings since before the war,'_

Starscream reached out and raked his claws across Skyfire's fuselage "_**Why do you smell like sparklings, Skyfire?"**_

Skyfire cursed himself, he had forgotten that sparkling scent lingers and Seekers were better at detecting that scent than any other Cybertronian. Knowing that Starscream would tell Megatron if he told him the truth, he played dumb while still doing everything he could to shake the smaller mech off. "_**What are you talking about, Starscream?"**_

Starscream dug his claws in between his plating and hissed "_**Don't lie to me, Skyfire, I would know that scent anywhere so why is it all over you?" **_

He brought his face close to the plating that formed the roof of Skyfire's alt. mode and took a deep intake to scan the air sample with his olfactory sensors more thoroughly and ran a few other scans while he was at it. "_**Hmm, as far as I can tell you're not Carrying nor do you show signs of recently Carrying so that can't be it. Did you and your Autobot friends happen to find a little orphan sparkling that you've been looking after or did you actually find someone that tolerated your presence enough to procreate with you? I almost feel sorry for anybot that would stoop so low they would have sparklings with **__you,"_

Skyfire engines

stilled, then rumbled in a low growl as he careened towards a high cliff. "_**Here's a hint Starscream, NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!" **_he flipped over so Starscream was pinned between him and the rock face and held him there until he heard a screech as they slid down to ground level before transforming into robot mode and swinging his elbow back to connect with Starscream's helm, knocking him out.

He stood up and walked away. "_**I'm sorry, but you left me no choice," **_he went over to where the others were waiting and transformed so they could load the injured into his alt. mode and took off as soon as everyone was situated.

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When Skyfire landed in front of the base Wheeljack, Swoop and First Aid already out there waiting to help get the injured to the med. bay where Ratchet and Perceptor were still doing repairs.

As soon as everyone was out of his cargo hold he transformed. By then almost everyone else had been helped inside by either Wheeljack, First Aid or another Autobot that had come out to help their friends inside while the scientist and two medics-in-training went in and came back out to help whoever was left.

Now all that remained was Ironhide and Optimus Prime, who were leaning against each other to support the other as best they could without aggravating their own injuries.

First-aid went to help Ironhide hobble inside so he wouldn't put too much pressure on his leg which appeared to have been shot in the earlier battle after Wheeljack and Swoop pulled Optimus off of him.

The Prime's lower right leg had been twisted almost completely off and was only hanging by the cables inside of it and he had multiple shots from Megatron's fusion cannon on his torso, some of which were still smoldering as he hopped along with Wheeljack and Swoop on either side of him.

Ironhide looked up at Skyfire "_**Thank for the lift, Skyfire,"**_

Skyfire smiled at him "_**You're welcome. Is there anything else you need of me, Prime?**_" he looked down at Optimus who shook his helm.

"_**Unless Ratchet needs your help with repairs I can't think of anything else. Go see your charges, Skyfire. Thanks for your help,"**_

Skyfire nodded and took his leave, stopping just before he came to the door to the Rec. Room and contacting Blaster. :Skyfire to Blaster, come in Blaster.:

The response was immediate. :This is Blaster, where ya at mech?:

Skyfire was about to tell him but then he got an idea. :Don't tell anyone I'm back yet. Would you happen to know where the twins and the sparklings are now?:

:The twins went to the Rec. Room to get some energon, the sparklin's are with meh an' Tracks in our quarters.:

:Okay, I'll be there soon. Skyfire out.: He disconnected the call and peeked into the Rec. Room. Sure enough, there was Sideswipe and Sunstreaker sitting on the couch drinking their energon. Using a surprising amount of stealth for a mech his size, Skyfire crept into the room.

Sideswipe looked up and saw that more Autobots were filing in "_**Hey, the others are coming back. Wouldn't that mean Skyfire would be back right about now?**_"

Sunstreaker took a drink of his energon and shrugged "_**Probably,"**_

Sideswipe looked at his brother. "_**Do you think he knows we lost the sparklings?"**_

They were both suddenly jolted when the couch was lifted up and set back down with them on it with a loud _bang. _When they looked up they saw Skyfire frowning down at them, still gripping the sides of the couch. "_**He knows,"**_

They weren't able to move at first but once he spoke in a low and uncharacteristically agitated tone of voice they immediately jumped up and bolted to the far side of the room and circled around to slip past him and out the door, screaming the whole way.

Skyfire watched them go, confused "_**Well, it's not like I was going to hurt them," **_Shaking his helm at the mechs, Skyfire went to Blaster's quarters to collect the sparklings.

* * *

_**AN: Hi, everyone, I am REALLY sorry this took so long; I lost my muse for a while. Thank you everyone for all your support for this story so far: LunarNightDreamer, HanamiKaze, Blood Shifter 2, Kissmyaft, SilverRayan, Draconia Snowmantle-Snape, Blitz-Krazi-1, RodimusPrime12, Taxicat2;**_


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